Where There Isn’t Smoke…
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, a short essay, and then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner Wayno, whose weekly blog post I highly recommend.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to my Sunday comic’s Secret Symbols.
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Hey, Pickles and Nudists, thanks for wandering by.
My Sunday cartoon this week (above) features one of my favorite humor mechanisms: the bait and switch. A first glance convinces you you’re seeing something familiar—a cowboy and an Indian noticing smoke signals in the distance. But after reading the caption, you realize you’ve been fooled.
Not puffs of smoke, but florets of cauliflower, and not across the canyon, only a couple dozen feet away. On further inspection, you see that both characters are enjoying a little salad. A moment’s more contemplation reveals that the Lone Ranger has made the salads for the two of them as a loving spouse might make sandwiches before a trip, but he has added a little passive aggression to the mix, causing Tonto to define his boundaries in no uncertain terms. Perhaps their relationship is not much different than the average marriage.
In the decades that I’ve been attempting to create comedy daily, I’ve learned that surprise is a fundamental element of humor. When reading a cartoon, the difference between a groan and a chuckle is often the predictability of the punchline or pun.
My subscription newsletter is full of surprises in the form of writing, videos, illustrations, and photos. I also offer an audio version of each article and of the Extras section at the end. Here are a couple of spot illustrations I did for my most recent piece, “Gurus Endangered.” To find out how this particular guru got tangled up in a clothesline, you can sign up here.
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Let us now dive into Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from the week and see what surprises they hold…
Not having to worry about “hat hair”—priceless.
It’s only a matter of time before we discover that algae has sentience.
The irony of conspiracy theories is that if you buy into one, you’re automatically playing into the hands of the people who dreamed it up and their attempts to control your behavior and your vote. It won’t end well.
It’s anyone’s guess how a much of a rodent’s testimony a jury would believe.
Perhaps a cue ball would last longer.
Final Leprechauns: Wayno’s blog this week features a pot o’ gold full of his St. Patrick’s Day gags from the past, several of which are from before he joined me in Bizarro. Don’t miss them! And in honor of this dubious holiday, here are a couple of my own St. Pat’s favorites: One fave, another fave.
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